I'm beginning to believe that Killer Illiteracy ought to rank near heart disease and cancer as one of the leading causes of death ...among Americans. What you don't know can indeed hurt you, and so those who can neither read nor write lead miserable lives, like Richard Wright's character, Bigger Thomas, born dead with no past or future.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »

There is no kind of false Wit which has been so recommended by the Practice of all Ages, as that which consists in a Jingle of Wor...ds, and is comprehended under the general Name of Punning. It is indeed impossible to kill a Weed, which the Soil has a natural Disposition to produce. The seeds of Punning are in the Minds of all Men, and tho' they may be subdued by Reason, Reflection, and good Sense, they will be very apt to shoot up in the greatest Genius, that is not broken and cultivated by the Rules of Art. Imitation is natural to us, and when it does not raise the Mind to Poetry, Painting, Musick, or other more noble Arts, it often breaks out in Punns and Quibbles.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »

I change, and so do women too;But I reflect--which women seldom do....Tobacco is a filthy weed,That from the devil doth proceed;That drains your purse, that burns your clothes,That makes a chimney of your nose.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »

Mr. [John] Barrymore's smile was the smile of an actor who hates actors, and who knows that he is going to kill two or three befor...e the play is over. I am not an actor-killer, but I like my Hamlets to dislike actors, if you know what I mean, and I think you don't.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »